Upgrades and repairs to the Honolulu Police Department's $43 million digital radio system could be done in the next few days, avoiding a planned temporary switch to analog transmissions, police said. Early upgrade may avert
HPD radio shutdown
By Nelson Daranciang
ndaranciang@starbulletin.comThe HPD is installing software upgrades and replacing faulty computer cards, said Assistant Police Chief Karl Godsey.
Communications Division Maj. Kenneth Simmons sent out a departmentwide memo last Friday telling officers that the switch to analog would start at 10 a.m. on Dec. 2. The memo said officers would need to turn a knob on their radio to the "A" talk group from the "D" channel.
Godsey said at the time the memo was issued, the department had no idea when it would receive the replacement computer cards and software.
The equipment has since arrived and could be installed earlier than anticipated. Godsey said Dec. 2 was chosen to give officers who may go on vacation between now and then plenty of notice.
The planned switch-over was scheduled as a precaution in case problems developed during the installation. But police said the installation may be accomplished without causing any problems, thus avoiding a shutdown.
The memo and past communications problems and glitches prompted critics to call for the department to dump the digital system and go back to the 150-megahertz analog radios.
The new system can broadcast both digital and analog transmissions at 800 megahertz. It also enables patrol officers to access warrant, driver's license and vehicle registration information on mobile computers rather than have a dispatcher look up the information for them.
The most recent problem occurred on Nov. 7 when several patrol districts were forced to switch to backup analog radio channels for nearly nine hours. Godsey said software upgrades installed by technicians had settings not compatible with HPD's system. He said the software was reinstalled after the settings were adjusted.
